Comparison of lung ultrasound with transpulmonary thermodilution in assessing extra-vascular lung water

Background: Increased extra-vascular lung water (EVLW) is common in critical care and correlates with the severity of acute lung injury, length of intensive care unit stay and mortality. Lung ultrasound (LUS) can assess EVLW by determining the amount of ‘B-lines’: artefacts signifying alveolar-interstitial oedema. This study’s aim was to determine whether EVLW estimation with the help of LUS correlates with the more accurate PiCCO2® cardiac output system utilising transpulmonary thermodilution.Methods: This prospective observational study was undertaken at Universitas Academic Hospital, Bloemfontein. Patients were scanned according to a fixed protocol, followed by transpulmonary thermodilution. The cumulative B-line count was compared with the EVLW index generated by the PiCCO2® system.Results: Four males and six females were enrolled. The mean EVLW index was 9.1 ml/kg/m2 (standard deviation 1.45), and the median cumulative B-line count was 14 (interquartile range 6–25). A positive, but not statistically significant, correlation was found (r = 0.40, p = 0.25) between the B-line count and EVLW index.Conclusion: This study investigated a possible correlation between LUS interpretation and transpulmonary thermodilution in assessing EVLW. Results seem promising, but the small sample could indicate only that LUS might be of use for the assessment of EVLW. Further studies are needed.Keywords: B-lines,critical care, extra-vascular lung water, lung ultrasound, thermodilutio

A Real-Time Infodemiology Study on Public Interest in Mpox (Monkeypox) following the World Health Organization Global Public Health Emergency Declaration

Google Trends (GT) is a useful real-time surveillance tool for epidemic outbreaks such as monkeypox (Mpox). GT provides hour-by-hour (real-time) data for the last seven days of Google searches. Non-real-time data are a random sample that encompasses search trends from 2004 and up to 72 h. Google Health Trends (GHT) API extracts daily raw search probabilities relative to the time period and size of the underlying population. However, little is known about the utility of GT real-time surveillance and GHT API following the public health announcements. Thus, this study aimed to analyzed Mpox GT real-time, non-real-time, and GHT API data 72 h before and after the WHO declared Mpox a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) in the top five Mpox-affected countries. Joinpoint regression was used to measure hourly percentage changes (HPC) in search volume. The WHO PHEIC statement on Mpox generated 18,225.6 per 10 million Google searches in the U.S. and Germany (946.8), and in 0–4 h, the HPC increased by an average of 103% (95% CI: 37.4–200.0). This study showed the benefits of real-time surveillance and the GHT API for monitoring online demand for information on emerging infectious diseases such as Mpox

Confirmation of an instrument monitoring quality of nursing student accompaniment

Background: The quality of support provided by preceptors should be optimal to develop students’ competence. We describe the validation of the measuring instrument to monitor support offered by preceptors during their accompaniment. Method: A quantitative survey design was used to validate the self-administered instrument. A sample of 346 s- and third-year undergraduate nursing students at two higher education nursing institutions provided 930 assessments of preceptor support, 750 which contained no missing data and were used for the analysis. Descriptive data analysis was conducted to determine the reliability and validity. Results: The Cronbach alpha coefficient showed high reliability (0.98) overall and for each subscale (0.95–0.97). The confirmatory factor analysis showed good fit (RMSEA = 0.057) with items measuring various elements of support loading strongly on their respective latent variables. Conclusion: The confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the instrument as fit for purpose to monitor preceptor support, specifically system, cognitive and emotional support

Attrition of undergraduate nursing students at selected South African universities

Background: The nursing profession forms the backbone of many healthcare systems. It therefore needs a consistent supply of registered nurses to deliver continuous and safe quality healthcare, and to replace the nurses leaving or retiring from the profession. Attrition actively occurs among nursing students in South Africa and threatens the future supply of registered nurses. Aim: The aim of the study was to describe the attrition rate at selected South African universities and the factors influencing undergraduate nursing students to discontinue their nursing studies at these universities. Method: A quantitative descriptive design was followed. Heads of the nursing departments at the selected universities captured data with a specifically designed questionnaire. Thereafter their former nursing students provided information via a structured telephonic interview on the reasons why they discontinued the nursing programme. Results: The study revealed that attrition of undergraduate nursing students for three intake years (2007, 2008 and 2009) at the participating universities was between 39.3% and 58.7%. Academic and financial reasons as well as poor wellness and health were the main causes for attrition. Another factor was failure to cope with the demands of the clinical environment. Conclusion: Attrition might not occur immediately when a nursing student is challenged, as the student might exploit the various types of support offered. Although some nursing students do benefit from the offered support, a large number of nursing students still discontinue the undergraduate nursing programme

Describing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on alcohol‐induced blackout tweets

INTRODUCTION AND AIMS: COVID-19, considered a pandemic by the World Health Organization, overwhelmed hospitals in the USA. In parallel to the growing pandemic, alcohol sales grew in the USA, with people stockpiling alcohol. Alcohol-induced blackouts are one particularly concerning consequence of heavy drinking, and the extent to which blackout prevalence may change in the context of a pandemic is unknown. The purpose of the current study is to describe the prevalence of publicly available tweets in the USA referencing alcohol-induced blackouts prior to and during the COVID-19 outbreak. DESIGN AND METHODS: We used Crimson Hexagon's ForSight tool to access all original English tweets written in the USA that referenced alcohol-related blackouts in 2019 and 2020. Using infoveillance methods, we tracked changes in the number and proportion of tweets about blackouts. RESULTS: More alcohol-related blackout tweets were written between 13 March and 24 April in 2020 than 2019. In addition, a greater proportion of all tweets referenced blackouts in 2020 than in 2019. In the period prior to the 'stay at home' orders (January to mid-March), the proportion of blackout tweets were higher in 2020 than 2019. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Our findings demonstrate that references to high-risk drinking persist during the pandemic despite restrictions on large social gatherings. Given that the internet is a common source of information for COVID-19, the frequent posting about blackouts during this period might normalise the behaviour. This is concerning because alcohol use increases susceptibility to COVID-19, and alcohol-related mortality can further tax hospital resources

Describing the impact of the COVID

INTRODUCTION AND AIMS: COVID-19, considered a pandemic by the World Health Organization, overwhelmed hospitals in the USA. In parallel to the growing pandemic, alcohol sales grew in the USA, with people stockpiling alcohol. Alcohol-induced blackouts are one particularly concerning consequence of heavy drinking, and the extent to which blackout prevalence may change in the context of a pandemic is unknown. The purpose of the current study is to describe the prevalence of publicly available tweets in the USA referencing alcohol-induced blackouts prior to and during the COVID-19 outbreak. DESIGN AND METHODS: We used Crimson Hexagon's ForSight tool to access all original English tweets written in the USA that referenced alcohol-related blackouts in 2019 and 2020. Using infoveillance methods, we tracked changes in the number and proportion of tweets about blackouts. RESULTS: More alcohol-related blackout tweets were written between 13 March and 24 April in 2020 than 2019. In addition, a greater proportion of all tweets referenced blackouts in 2020 than in 2019. In the period prior to the 'stay at home' orders (January to mid-March), the proportion of blackout tweets were higher in 2020 than 2019. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Our findings demonstrate that references to high-risk drinking persist during the pandemic despite restrictions on large social gatherings. Given that the internet is a common source of information for COVID-19, the frequent posting about blackouts during this period might normalise the behaviour. This is concerning because alcohol use increases susceptibility to COVID-19, and alcohol-related mortality can further tax hospital resources

ATF2 Proposal: v.1

Since the ICFA decision on the choice of technology, a world-wide collaboration on the design of the ILC has rapidly progressed. The formation of the GDE will accelerate the work towards a final design. An important technical challenge is obviously the high gradient acceleration but what is similarly challenging is the collision of extremely small beams of a few nanometer size. The latter challenge has three distinct issues: creating small emittance beams, preserving the emittance during acceleration and transport, and focusing the beams to nanometers. Most studies have been done using computer simulations but many issues still remain that require experimental verification. KEK-ATF was built to create small emittance beams, and succeeded in obtaining an emittance that almost satisfies the ILC requirements. In this proposal we present a project, ATF2, which addresses the third issue, namely the focusing of the beam into nanometer spot.ybr> In the longer term, the ATF2 project would also provide invaluable input for the CLIC design of a future multi-TeV collider. The ATF2 project will extend the extraction beamline of the ATF with an ILC-type final focus system to create a tightly focused, stable beam by making use of the small emittance of the ATF.<br